Stop Child Molestation Book

Rating:
Summary: A Cure Worse Than the Disease
Review: Gene Abel starts with a laudable goal: to drastically reduce the occurrence of child molestation in America. However, the methods he proposes to accomplish this goal are bound to send chills down the spines of most parents. The first sign that something is amiss is his claim that one out of every twenty boys develops pedophilia, usually in childhood or puberty. He never explains how he arrives at this figure, one which cannot be found anywhere else in the literature. This 5% prevalence rate would mean that pedophilia is one of the most common serious childhood diseases in America, similar in prevalence to asthma.

A handful of influential therapists began promoting the belief in an epidemic of childhood sexual deviance about 20 years ago-at the same time that some of the same therapists convinced the public that satanic ritual sexual abuse was occurring at nursery schools across the nation, and that large numbers of women had been sexually abused by their parents in childhood but had repressed their memories of it. Both of these beliefs were eventually disproved by investigators and researchers, but only after thousands of children were traumatized and adults' lives were destroyed. However, the myth of rampant childhood sexual deviance has survived, most likely because its believers-juvenile sex offender therapists-comprise an industry mostly hidden from public view and exempt from oversight by the mainstream mental health community. Sexuality researchers have noted that these therapists commonly label children as "sex offenders" for mutually desired sexual contact with each other, then imply that they are dangerous to other children.

Abel blames pedophilia among boys on testosterone, accidental pairings of orgasm with thoughts of younger children, sexual victimization, or "biology that is deviant." (The last phrase, found on p. 69, doubtless would be rejected by any serious biologist or physiologist.) Interestingly enough, these are the same kinds of things homosexuality was blamed on 50 years ago.

Abel recommends that all parents question their sons at around 6th grade about their sexual fantasies. Any boy who is suspected of having sexual thoughts involving younger children, or who has been sexually touched by an older child or adult, is to be referred to a "sex-specific therapist" who will test him for pedophilic symptoms. The test should be either a sexual interest test (developed by Abel himself, in which the boy examines photographs of children and adults in swimwear while a computer measures visual reaction time), a lie detector test, or a plethysmograph connected to his genitals while he looks at or listens to sexually stimulating material.

The problem with such tests (aside from their intensely humiliating and stigmatizing effects) is that they have never been validated, a process which would require testing a representative sample of American children to establish norms. In fact, all researchers are agreed that very little is known about normal sexual feelings during childhood and adolescence. To make matters worse, Abel refuses to release data necessary for independent researchers to evaluate his test.

However, the most chilling part of Abel's book comes when he outlines treatment methods to cure "pedophilia" among boys: separation from other children (possibly removal from the family), monitoring of sexual feelings and behavior by family members and friends who report to the therapist (and sometimes by plethysmograph), high doses of sex drive reducing drugs, covert sensitization, and aversion therapy with ammonia. The last two methods are intended to eliminate particular sexual thoughts by pairing them with pain, fear, or humiliation. Any of these methods may be imposed on the boy for life by the therapist, regardless of his or his parents' wishes.

Although Abel refers to them as "breakthroughs in testing, medicine, and therapies," students of history will recognize plethysmographs, sex drive reducing drugs, aversion therapy, and covert sensitization as the methods used decades ago to "cure" homosexuality. Mainstream health professionals and the public (even those who disapprove of homosexual behavior) now consider them ineffective, dangerous, and unethical. Numerous accounts show they lead to nightmares, depression, chronic anxiety, self-hatred, and suicidal thoughts among both gay men and children labeled as "deviant." And no wonder: Considering the fact that we know almost nothing about the development of sexual feelings, it is clear that such efforts amount to messing with something we don't understand.

Like the "expert" doctors and therapists who justified their use on homosexuals, Abel shows no concern for emotional trauma and intense stigma these methods inflict on boys, instead rationalizing such abuse by writing that the protection of normal children takes precedence over the welfare of deviant children. Especially disturbing is the apparent endorsement of this approach by some other leaders in the juvenile sex offender industry-an approach that would create a new class of lepers consisting, presumably, of 5% of all boys.

I strongly recommend that parents and health care professionals read this book, not because it points the way to preventing child molestation (fortunately few parents or mainstream professionals would tolerate Abel's medieval proposal), but because it shows how juvenile sex offender therapists are following in the tradition of those doctors who attempted to eradicate homosexuality by exaggerating its dangers, advocating drastic "therapies," ignoring evidence of the harmfulness of those therapies, and using poorly designed studies to support wishful thinking regarding their effectiveness. Abel's book throws light on an industry that has been hidden from public view-an industry guided by fear, ignorance, and zealotry, often without benefit of ethics or accountability.

Rating:
Summary: Specic actions can be taken to make a difference
Review: I picked up this book thinking I would read the introduction. Instead, I read all of it and was left with a sense of hope and possibility around a subject that previously had left me feeling hopeless and powerless. The chapter formats and the case histories make this a highly readable as well as informative book, which I enthusiastically recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Specic actions can be taken to make a difference
Review: I picked up this book thinking I would read the introduction. Instead, I read all of it and was left with a sense of hope and possibility around a subject that previously had left me feeling hopeless and powerless. The chapter formats and the case histories make this a highly readable as well as informative book, which I enthusiastically recommend.

Rating:
Summary: A Valuable Resource for Parents and Professionals
Review: I thought I knew a lot about child sexual abuse until I read this book. As a child I survived sexual abuse. As an adult I am still dealing with the long range effects of severe sexual abuse perpetrated on my daughter. This book really opened my eyes and gave me hope. This is a book of facts, based on extensive research. Knowing these facts can save families from the devastating effects of abuse that can continue for generations.

Since most child sexual abuse happens in families or with close family associates, the key to stopping it is to let parents know that there is help available for the perpetrator as well as the victim of the abuse.

The Stop Child Molestation Book teaches ordinary people what to say and do to be heroes and save hundreds of children from becoming victims or from becoming abusers. It does that by providing concrete examples of converstations that parents can have with their children, and a good list of resources for action if needed.

The tone of the book is definitely sex positive. What I mean is that this is not a book that is against sex or pleasure. The harm that the book tries to prevent is that which comes from sex between an adult and young children, or between children when the younger one is pre-adolescent and the age difference is more than five years.

I am so convinced of the importance of this book that I have bought more than a dozen copies and have given them away to families with children and to professionals that I know.

Rating:
Summary: Knowledge is Power in the Fight Against Child Sexual Abuse
Review: I thought I knew a lot about child sexual abuse until I read this book. As a child I survived sexual abuse. As an adult I am still dealing with the long range effects of severe sexual abuse perpetrated on my daughter. This book really opened my eyes and gave me hope. This is a book of facts, based on extensive research. Knowing these facts can save families from the devastating effects of abuse that can continue for generations.

Since most child sexual abuse happens in families or with close family associates, the key to stopping it is to let parents know that there is help available for the perpetrator as well as the victim of the abuse.

The Stop Child Molestation Book teaches ordinary people what to say and do to be heroes and save hundreds of children from becoming victims or from becoming abusers. It does that by providing concrete examples of converstations that parents can have with their children, and a good list of resources for action if needed.

The tone of the book is definitely sex positive. What I mean is that this is not a book that is against sex or pleasure. The harm that the book tries to prevent is that which comes from sex between an adult and young children, or between children when the younger one is pre-adolescent and the age difference is more than five years.

I am so convinced of the importance of this book that I have bought more than a dozen copies and have given them away to families with children and to professionals that I know.

Rating:
Summary: How to save the Children
Review: My having read this book has given me the ability to help people. I, for once, had truthful information, based on 16 thousand interviews. I had a clear and understandable resource to refer to regarding this tragic dilemma that faces our country. It needs to be read and kept close at hand. I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: A Valuable Resource for Parents and Professionals
Review: This book is a godsend for families and professionals. Abel and Harlow have done a great service with this extensively researched and reader-friendly book. The care with which they have written and arranged their findings and suggestions makes the book useful and practical for anyone wanting to have better understanding of this difficult subject. Their humane and balanced point of view offers hope and help.

Rating:
Summary: The Stop Child Molestation Book
Review: This is the most comprehensive study I have read on the subject of Child Molestation and Pedophilia. This is a "MUST" read! I have found this to be most educational, and informative. The knowledge one will gain from reading this book is priceless.

Rating:
Summary: The Stop Child Molestation Book
Review: This is the most comprehensive study I have read on the subject of Child Molestation and Pedophilia. This is a "MUST" read! I have found this to be most educational, and informative. The knowledge one will gain from reading this book is priceless.